Crop material such as hay, straw and the like is commonly harvested by compacting the material into bales tied with twine. These bales can be small square bales that can be handled by hand, but more commonly now they are large bales that can weigh up to 2000 pounds. These large bales can be rectangular, essentially an elongated cube and typically called “square bales”, or cylindrical, typically called “round” bales, and when feeding such bales it is common to use a bale processor to remove shredded crop material from the bale with a disintegrator or flail apparatus and then and discharge the shredded material onto the ground or into a feed bunk. Such a bale processor is disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,040 to Bussiere et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,683 to Taylor.
Typical bale processors include a container where one or more bales are placed, and a shredding mechanism operative to shred the bale and discharge the shredded crop material in a stream from the bale processor. In one style of bale processor the bottom deck of the container is a floor with conveyor slats moving along the floor to move the bale toward a disintegrator rotor located on one side of the container. In another popular style, the bottom deck of the container is provided typically by rotating drums that are operative to rotate the bale while it is resting on the bottom deck, and spaced apart guard rods oriented perpendicular to the feed rollers. The bale rests on the guard rods and drums and the flail elements on the disintegrator rotor extend up between the bars to tear pieces of crop material off the bale as it rotates.
Large bales can be loaded into the container with a loader vehicle, but it is common to also provide a bale loading fork apparatus at the rear end of the bale processor. The fork apparatus is configured to allow the operator to lower the forks to extend horizontally from the rear of the bale processor and back the bale processor up such that the forks slide under a bale resting on the ground. The operator can then raise the forks with the bale resting on them, and tilt the rear end of the forks upward such that the bale falls into the container.
Such a fork apparatus is disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,001 to Kuelker et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 7,156,333 to Lepage et al. Often the bales are stored at some distance from where it is desired to spread them. The forks allow the operator to carry bales in the container and also carry one or more bales on the forks so that a plurality of bales can be processed on each trip from a storage location to a use location.
Loading large square bales is difficult when approaching from the end as only a small target is presented. Loading square bales from the side is easier as it presents a larger target for the operator however when loading square bales from the side the bale enters the processor with the longer length dimension thereof perpendicular to the feed rollers or flail drum causing the bale to land on top of the feed rollers. The feed rollers are configured such that a round bale rests on the feed rollers with the axis of the cylinder parallel to the feed rollers such that the arc of the cylinder extends down between the feed rollers to the guard rods and the flail elements on the disintegrator rotor extend up between the bars and contact the bale.
With a square bale with a substantially flat bottom resting across the feed rollers, the bottom of the bale is often above the reach of the flail elements, and the operator may need to try to bounce the bale processor over rough ground to break the bale, or actually cut the twines holding the bale together. Also square bales are packed with crop material from one end to the other such that the material is in wafers oriented perpendicular to the long dimension. Thus once the bale is opened up, the wafers of a square bale oriented with the long dimension perpendicular to the feed rollers are oriented perpendicular to the guard rods and thus resist falling down between the guard rods such that extended time is required to process the bale.
Thus it is preferred to load square bales from the end such that when transferred to the bale processing chamber, the long dimension is oriented parallel to the feed rollers and the disintegrator rotor where at least a corner of the bale can be contacted by the flail elements, and once the twine has been removed, the wafers of the bale can easily be processed as they are also parallel with the guard rods.